


Sinners Notion

by rachelarcher



Series: Salvation of The Sinners [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: And a good father, F/F, F/M, Lizzie is the only Grimes who has her shit together, Rick sees his son, Rick struggles to deal with Lori's death, carl is a brat, rick is a good cop, somewhere deep down?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 17:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13439676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachelarcher/pseuds/rachelarcher
Summary: Rick's POV Through Salvation Dipped in Damnation





	Sinners Notion

Rick Grimes was excited. He had prayed for weeks that baby number five would be a boy - he and Lori had never found out the sexes of their babies until they were born. His oldest turned twelve, his girls won their pageants, then… then his world shattered.

 

Lori Grimes went into labor early.

 

Lori Grimes slipped into a coma from blood loss.

 

Lori Grimes never woke up.

 

Rick Grimes had his fourth daughter, Gracie. A almost three year old who didn't understand. Two little girls who had no clue how to live without their mom, and a sullen almost teenager. 

 

The house he lived in, the one he and Lori had made home… Threatened to destroy him from the inside out. Memories of his happy home decimated and shattered. Lori's ghost haunted him.

 

So he moved.

 

He was a man of action more than words, anyway.

 

His home town was both inviting and intriguing. A lot had changed since his time there. A lot of new faces, amid a smorgasbord of old. The one face he hadn't been prepared to see was Merle Dixon. The man had been a couple years older than him in high school but drugs and alcohol had taken him away more than once currently, he and a young girl were sitting on a bench in downtown. Her feet kicking out and dangling.

 

Rick Grimes was a cop, and the scene had him on edge. He looked to his training partner, Morgan Jones. “Merle is a racist son of a bitch, but he loves his kid sister.” The man finally said. “He's got another sister who took off in the night, some years back, and a kid brother who got outta this town after he turned sixteen.”

 

These were small details that made Rick eye Morgan. Cops didn't tend to know so much about folks, especially in a town that had grown so much in ten years. “We arrest Merle a lot. Sad to say we've started to arrest Odette, now to.” Morgan seemed disheartened and shook his head. “Prostitution, Rick.”

 

He felt bad for the girl.

 

-/-

 

Rick had a small flicker of hope - the night he came home and Carl was “out” according to Lizzie. Carl had come running in and thanked him for “loving them right”. In the morning, however, he realized that Carl had probably met Odette. This time the girl was leaning against the IGA, while Merle was talking to some man not far from them, her lip busted open, and a gash over her eye, her legs a garden of hues from bruises to cuts, to scars. 

 

“DIXON!” Rick called, loudly, catching both’s attention. “A word?”

 

Merle met the eyes of the man he was talking to, nodded, then walked toward Rick. “What can I do for you, officer Friendly?” Merle asked, as he folded his arms over his chest. Rick hated him, just like he had in high school, the boy looked like a skinhead reject, but there was something off about him these days.

 

“Prostituting your kid sister out?” Rick asked, low, calculating.

 

“He needs a babysitter for his kids.” Merle lied, right to Rick’s face. The cop in him screamed to do something to protect the girl, instead he thought about his own daughters and how he needed to spend more time at home. 

 

“Right.” Rick shrugged, then looked at Odette. “That the truth, kid?”

 

She chewed her thumb, “Yes, sir.” She glanced sidelong at Merle, who attempted to smile, but it came out twisted. “He just needs someone to watch his kid.” She assured, “And he asked Merle if I could.” With that she twisted away, climbed into the car, and waved a cheery goodbye.

 

“Keep her away from my kids.” Rick glowered at Merle.

 

“Whatever, Friendly.” Merle shrugged, and turned, headed to his bike, and disappeared in the same direction of the red car and Odette.

 

-/-

 

Carl's attitude had him reeling. How do you help a kid who refuses to admit there is a problem?

 

… You don't.

 

Pointedly Rick was spending a lot of time with Lizzie and Mika, and the babies. But Carl was playing video games in his room and screaming “Leave me Alone.” A lot, and Rick didn't know how to handle that.

 

His kids had always been Lori's private treasure. All we're homeschooled, which is why he hadn't tossed them into school yet, and we're head of the curve. All we're complex in a different way. 

 

Carl used to play baseball.

 

He quit.

 

Lizzie and Mika used to play soccer.

 

At least they kept that up.

 

Jude was too small to have any real interest other than he baby dolls and apparently her siblings.

 

His own pain had a tendency to bind him.

 

But, Odette standing on the corner of the five and dime talking to Carl, in questionable clothes concerned him. It wasn't like he could rush out and tell her off - he was Easter dress shopping for god sake. 

 

Odette held his daughter and something darkened in his mind.

 

“Seems like trouble.” He told Carl.

 

Carl seemed to think about it, before shrugging it off. “Don’t know.” Carl mused. 

 

-/-

 

Rick arrested her a couple nights later. She was standing not far from the five and dime, this time with a blue jean mini skirt and a halter top on with smudged lipstick and mascara in tear tracks down her face. 

 

In the cop car she shivered.

 

“You know why I arrested you right?” Rick asked, tentatively.

 

“Yeah.” Her little voice caught him off guard. He looked in the rearview and frowned, she was pointedly looking out the window like she was bored. 

 

“Odette Dixon how old are you?”

 

“Sixteen, sir.” When her eyes met his in the rearview it was like looking in a pensive her eyes pulled him in and made he recoil at the same time. 

 

“Can someone come pick you up in the morning?” He finally asked, pulling into the station.

 

“Yes, sir. I can get Merle to.” She looked down then, at her lap. Booking her was easy, she had prior arrest, that kept getting thrown out in court because the judge couldn't find any 'proof’. Rick seethed.

 

-/-

 

He started working late nights. He chalked it up to wanting to spend his day time free time with the kids, but honestly… he was on a mission. One that, in retrospect, he probably should have thought through better. He keep an eye on Odette, made notes of where she hung out and when. There were days on end when he couldn't find her. And that bothered him more than locking her up did.

 

Rick Grimes was a man of action.

 

He was losing his son, and he couldn't rectify that. Maybe he could save a little girl, in a dirty dress, with broken down boots that didn't quite match anything she owned.

 

Lori's ghost haunted him the most in the early light of day, always just up ahead and to the side of his vision, always in her silk wedding dress. Always watching, with a stern and disappointed look on her face. Like she knew he was messing everything up.

 

He started drinking, not a lot, but enough to back her memory out.

 

-/-

 

He came home on a dusty Friday morning to find the lawn mowed and all the kids in the living room. The house cleaner than it had any right to be. 

 

To his utter irritation Jude had injured herself and no one had bothered to call him. Instead Lizzie said, “Carl took care of it.” And let the situation drop.

 

The subject irritated him. 

 

How in the hell had Carl known how to put stitches in?

 

Carl when asked hugged and said, “Mom made me do boy scouts, dad.”

 

It wasn't an answer not really.

 

-/-

 

The next time Rick arrested her, she was the least bruised he had ever seen her. Her red lips pressed in a thin line. She just held her hands out and winked at him, tilted her head to the side, and looked back over her shoulder to where William was leaned against the wall. Rick was pretty sure he had never been so relieved to arrest someone in his life. The more than seedy men who had been circling her made him worry.

 

Booking her was a pattern that he knew well now. “Hungry?”

 

“Yes, sir.” She nodded. He got her a honey bun and a coke from the vending machine, and hunted her up a blanket. “Merle can get me in the morning. Thank you for the food, Rick.”

 

“Etta, why don’t you ever ask Carol to come get you?” Rick asked, as he leaned against the jail cell. 

 

She looked up at him, chewing on her bite of honey bun, before she answered. “Carol has her own shit, Rick.”

 

Rick sighed, “And Daryl?”

 

“Makin’ his life better, don’t worry about me, hoss. I’ve got a plan.” She promised, shot him her marvelous smile, then wrapped up in the blanket. “Besides it ain’t like I’ve got prospects, Rick. Merle needs a keeper, and daddy’s gonna die sooner rather than later - someone’s got a set a bad example, teach all the kids what not to do.”

 

Rick wanted to argue, sometimes he wanted to adopt her and protect her from the world. Other times he wanted to lock her away and throw away the key. She was an enigma and it grated on everyone of his nerves. He let her out the next morning, and didn’t think much about her and Merle heading into the grocery store, Merle carrying her on his back, and her laughing, kicking her legs out around her. 

 

It caught him completely by surprise, when he walked into his kitchen a day later and found Carl hovering a bit too close to Odette in probably the nicest dress he had ever seen her in, her arms still soapy from doing the dishes (like it was a normal occurance), her shoes kicked off by the door like she lived there (those damn boots), and his son in a aborted mission to hug her tight. 

 

“Officer Grimes, I was just dropping off the cake I made to thank, for the other night.’ She flashed him a soft smile, and it irritated Rick, how well she could lie to him - he almost believed her. “My boots were messy so I slipped them off. I was just leaving.” She moved to weave around him, Rick however caught her arm, and he felt like an asshole about it when she tried to jerk away, something like fear flashing through her eyes. 

 

“Thank you, Odette.” Rick hummed. “It’s highly unnecessary to thank a cop for arresting you.”

 

“Gave me a safe place to sleep.” She mouthed, “Now, if you don’t mind.” It takes all her energy to jerk away, then she stormed out the front door, boots in her hands.

 

“What did you arrest her for?” Carl asked, like he was either fishing for answers, or knew and hated to hear the truth in what his father had to say.

 

Rick leveled him a sharp look. “I think we both know. Prostitution. I don’t want her around you or you're sisters.” Rick sighed, “Please tell me she’s not been here before.”

 

“She hasn’t.” Lizzie’s voice caught Carl off guard.

 

“The girl in the red dress?” Mika asked, “With the cake? Who is she?” 

 

“Just someone from town. She made us a cake.” Rick muttered, he looked at the bourbon cake and sighed, he hadn’t realized that Odette had been listening when he had been talking to Morgan about it a week or more ago. When he had mentioned that it was the one thing he missed about Lori’s mother. 

 

-/-

 

The rain gutter on the first floor under Carl's window needed repair in mid September. Which struck Rick as odd - it wasn't on the corner of the house and it made absolutely no sense as to why that was the only section with a droop. He paid a man from town to fix it, some guy named Paul Rovia that his neighbors all called Jesus.

 

He noticed it was starting to droop again only a week later.

 

If he didn't know better Rick would have thought someone was using it to pull themselves up. But, Carl hadn't mentioned any friends and he seriously doubted Carl was sneaking out. Instead he chalked it up to a failure of the builder. 

 

Jesus Rovia was out to the house three more times in September alone. So Rick set up a camera.

 

-/-

 

By the middle of October Rick was used to arresting Merle Dixon, he sporadically arrested Odette Dixon. He had also, slowly come to terms with the fact that Odette Dixon and his son were something. She was the figure dragging herself through his back yard on the motion sensors cameras, the figure painfully hoisting herself up to the second floor, and at times falling a time or two before she could clamber into Carl's window. She was the figure in the backyard playing with the girls while Carl mowed. 

 

It struck something deep within him - his son was doing a better job saving the little girl that Rick had set out to save. It might have bothered him, but mid-October is when the man from the red corvette - when Merle had given a shaky story about babysitting - turned up dead. Well, he’d been missing for weeks, but his body and car were found dead. His name Ceasar Martinez.

 

Rick ran the name, multiple times, just to get a bigger picture.

 

Ceasar Martinez had been question in connection to a singular event that made Rick’s whole body cold. Merle and Odette had a brother between them - Daryl Wayne Dixon, and he was currently in Macon, Georgia, apprenticing at a garage to get his education in, it was a pay for the education kind of thing, so Rick was unsure how Daryl was making any money to live… for now he let that drop.

 

The event in question, happened just before he turned sixteen, when Odette was eleven, so five years before. Caesar beat the shit of Daryl, and questionably molested him or raped him - the report was unclear with things missing which grated on everyone of Rick’s nerves, either the arresting officer had doctored it or hadn’t cared enough about it. Martinez told the cop who brought him in that, “Daryl wanted it.” 

 

Rick didn’t for a second think the boy did.

 

According to folks around town, Martinez had just rolled back into town, when he and Merle met up that day on the sidewalk, and Odette had climbed into his car. Forensics and the Medical Examiner speculated that Martinez had been dead since that afternoon.

 

Rick had wanted to question Odette, but couldn’t find here anywhere. 

 

He rounded up Merle and William Dixon. Merle came as quietly as he expected he would, and William kicked and screamed, ended up breaking Rick’s nose, and dislocating Morgan’s shoulder in the process. 

 

-/-

 

November brought a crime scene that Rick couldn’t stomach. 

 

Odette Dixon leaned against a dumpster behind the bowling alley, her face to her thighs slashed open, and her drunk father laughing behind her - like it was a Christmas gift. The girl could barely hold her head up when she was rushed to the hospital, and Rick felt something under his skin.

 

He notified Merle, the man was at the hospital before the ambulance, his whole body taunt against the desk, “NOW, Sasha, I want my kid sister - now!” Merle snarled.

 

“She just got here.” Rick soothed. “Headed to the trauma rooms.” He offered. “Do you know what happened?”

 

Merle leveled him a look, one that led Rick to believe that yes, Merle did know exactly what happened. “She told dad she was pregnant this morning.” Rick shivered. “Dad said he didn’t give a fuck, and drug her out to town anyway, he had a series of debts to pay off and she was gonna ‘elp ‘im with it.” Merle didn’t met Rick’s gaze. 

 

“Know who the father was?”

 

“No.” Merle managed, he pointedly hadn’t drawn his gaze from the floor.

 

“Alright, when she wakes up, give me a call.” Rick ordered.

 

It doesn’t surprise him, at least he doesn’t think it does, when he gets a phone call the next day from Carl’s school. Apparently his son broke Ron Anderson’s nose and ran out of gym class. Anderson was the other cop on the scene last night, so Rick can piece together exactly what happened.

 

He groaned, then called Sasha. “Mrs. Ford, is my son there?”

 

“Maybe.” Sasha responded. “I told him and Merle that I wouldn’t tell you he was here.”

 

“Ok, just, keep an eye on him?” Rick sighed.

 

“Sure.” With that she hung up.

 

For a moment, Rick didn’t do anything, just thought. Carl had been getting better, in reflection, opening up more and talking about well everything. Lizzie and Mika had even began to talk more. Rick wondered just how much of an impact Odette was having on his children, it unnerved him slightly. 

 

By the time he made it to the hospital, Carl was gone.

 

By the time he made it home, Carl was fast asleep on the couch, his head in Lizzie’s lap. “How bad is Odette?” The little girl asked, clearly she had forgot she was supposed to keep the secret.

 

“She is going to live. But she was hurt bad.” Rick offered, looking at his oldest daughter.

 

Lizzie sighed, “Etta is a good girl, and angel. She helped Carl remember.” 

 

“Remember what, sweetheart?” Rick asked, rubbing her blonde locks, and smiling down at her.

 

“How to love.” Lizzie responded, “How to care about us, and how to love you.”

 

Rick stood speechless, because as usual his children were smarter than him.

 

-/-

 

The day his life changed and took a hard left turn, and reminded him that he never had been standing on solid ground… was the day the twisters touched down. He couldn’t get home, and he doubted the kids knew what do in the sirens. 

 

In the aftermath, the town's half standing, his trailer in the woods is split in half, fear creeping up his bones. “CARL! LIZZIE! JUDE! MIKA! GRACIE!” His screams and shouts are on repeat, he rounds the decimated trailer, to find a clear path, where the twister touches down and headed straight back, almost like a road of destruction. 

 

There, in front of what he believed to be the Dixon house, his children stood with Odette. He reached his daughter's first, hugging them all to him, as his eyes landed on Carl. The boy watching after Odette, who was weaving her way through the debris around the house. Carl was sprinting towards him, then, “She saved you?” Rick asked, concerned and confused. 

 

“She knew we didn’t have a cellar.” Lizzie supplied. 

 

Rick frowned. “Was William with you?”

 

“No.” Carl sighed, not meeting his eyes. “She couldn’t get him to wake up.”

 

“Serves him right.” Rick declared. “The house is mostly standing. Hershel is going to let us stay with him. The twister only touched down in a couple of places.” He looked toward the house that Odette had disappeared into. “I’ll be back.” Rick declared, taking off to help her.

 

“No.” Carl snapped. “I can help her.” He pushed past Rick and clambered over the metal corpse of a car, he scrambled into the house. 

 

Rick grunted, “Stay here, Lizzie.” As the girl nodded. Rick took off after his son. He found them standing in what was probably the living room. Odette with ehr back to him, and carl next to her. 

 

“Son of a bitch.” She grumbled. “All this time, and it's some sort of poetic justice that his car smashed him, don’t you think?” She didn’t look away, instead she instinctively leaned back, until Carl’s arms wrapped around her.

 

“I’d say I was sorry, but he deserved to die.” Carl whispered, low, Rick wondered if that was for him to hear or not. “Odette, you're not old enough to be on your own.”

 

She turned in his arms, and cupped his face in her hands, “Daryl is coming home. Was going to anyway, he finished up his schoolin’.” She pressed her forehead to his. “Ain’t going nowhere, Carl.” She promised. “I love you, kid.” 

 

Rick made a choked noise behind them.

 

The pair turned to face him.

 

“How long have you been saving my son?” Rick demanded. “We are going to have a conversation about lying, later, Carl.” Rick knew the actual answer, since before Rick had decided to save the girl - and honestly he had made a complete and total mess of that. 

 

“Since we moved here.” Carl muttered. “She’s the only friend I’ve really made.”

 

Rick frowned again, “Looks like more than friends.”

 

“Ain’t his fault, Friendly.” Odette made a move to break away from Carl, but Rick watched his son cling tighter to the girl. “I tried to avoid him, but he kept givin’ me those puppy dog eyes.” She bit her bottom lip. “Don’t be mad at him.”

 

“I’m not mad, just… disappointed he didn’t tell me about you.” Something akin to sadness settled on Rick’s face. “Was the baby yours?” He looked very seriously at Carl.

 

“No.” He whispered. “Not mine.”

 

“I don’t know whose it was.” Odette offered. “But I ain’t…” 

 

“She didn’t sleep with them cause she wanted to.” Carl declared. “She loves me, and only me, right?”

 

“Right.” Odette laid her head on his shoulder. “Friendly, all those times you arrested me, it was cause Pa or Merle were makin’ me do it.” 

 

“I believe you.” Rick looked towards the sun, as it shone down on them. “How about some lunch, and we sort everything out?”


End file.
